President's Cup - St. George

 We had a wonderful President's Day weekend and celebrated by traveling down to St. George for a few days of sun and warmth and to watch Jack's soccer team play in a tournament.

The kids and I left right after school on Thursday (after putting a last minute party together for Lindsey's class).   They were great on the drive and we arrived around 9:00 at night.   We had rented a condo and it was wonderful!  There were toys, a beautiful kitchen, 3 bedrooms. etc.      We explored the house and then went to bed.

The next morning, Jack had his 1st game at Dixie State.   It was a little chilly, but still sunny, and his team won.   After the game, we found a grocery store to buy stuff for breakfast and lunch and then headed back to the condo.   Jon & Mike met us there and were able to go to his 2nd game of the day.   He was playing awful, so I sent Jon over at half time to find out what was wrong.  Apparently, the ref almost didn't let him play because he had the wrong kind of cleats.   We had found cleats at Payless for $3, but apparently, they were baseball cleats.   

So, after that game, we headed to Dick's to buy him new soccer cleats and then Mike drove to the St. George airport and picked up Becky & her 2 kids who had driven in from Phoenix.    We went to Olive Garden for dinner and had a blast hanging out in the condo and playing games.

Jack's next game was Saturday morning and he played great.  They won and we then were left to find out if they made it to the semi-finals.   We found out about an hour later that his team didn't make it by 1 point.   So, we shopped a little bit, and then went to a really fun rec center to swim later that afternoon.  We finished the day by doing dinner at Texas Roadhouse with Becky's in-laws, Marc & Betty. 

We slept in a little on Sunday morning and then loaded up and headed home.  We were sad to leave the sunshine and return to snow, but it was such a treat to get away for a couple of days and enjoy family, great food, and a break from reality!

Happy Valentine's Day

 Happy Valentine's Day to all of our family & friends!   We love you!!!

Celebrating Kate's Birthday

 We decided to celebrate Kate's birthday over the course of a couple of weeks!      On her birthday, Jon & Jack were in Denver for the Broncos playoff game, so it was just the girls!  We were going to go to Artic Circle at Kate's request for her birthday and meet my siblings there, but a huge snowstorm came in, so we couldn't.   I ventured out to McDonald's (thankfully it's not very far from us) and brought that home for us to eat.    Then, we watched "The Spy Next Door" and ate popcorn.  We even stuck a candle in the popcorn bowl to sing to Kate.

 

The next day, Lindsey made Kate this darling cake.  There's a paintbrush on the upper left hand side and a puppy on the upper right hand side.  The cake was a cute turquoise color and it tasted delicious.

 



Then, on Sunday, we had a family birthday dinner for her.  She wanted spaghetti (yea!  Easy!) and brownies.   (Thankfully Jon & Jack arrived home safely about 2:30 in the morning after driving home from Denver).

 



Then, 2 weeks later, we had her friend party!   Over the summer, I signed Kate & Hannah up for some days of camp at The Little Gym and Kate happened to win 1/2 a birthday party.  So, we had her party at The Little Gym!  Easiest party ever!!!   And the kids had a blast!

They literally do everything - even serve the cake and icecream!  

The kids get to play in the gym for an hour.  There are 2 instructors there that play games and dance and use the gymnastics equipment.  Then, they came out for cupcakes and icecream and finished off by opening gifts back in the gym.   (They even write a list of who game what gifts).

 



 Cute birthday girl!

 

Hannah and Cohen (he's a darling little boy that lives next door that loves to play with Kate.  He's only 3, but he kept up with all the 7 year olds just fine).

 



 Kage & Kate

 

 Kate was NOT excited that we made her invite Hannah. She was worried that Hannah would "bug" her the whole time, but Hannah just did her own thing and had a fun time!

 

I love Kate's friends - they are so cute!

L to R:  Nicole Castro, Josie Richardson, Hailee Jensen, Carson Fullmer, Cheyenne Frank, Kage Mendenhall, Sahara Yates, Ava Vorwaller, Cohen Elliott, Brie Cooper & Hannah

Quilts for Babies

By the time January rolls around, I am soooo ready to have my sewing machine back out and start working on projects that have been building up!   There are several people we know that are having or have had babies recently, so here are 3 baby quilts that are all finished.  I have one more at the quilter now and another one with just about an hour left of work on it.   So, so fun!

 

This quilt is for my kid's piano teacher.   She had her first baby and named him Carter.  We have taken a "maternity break" from piano practicing too :)

This quilt is for Cali Strong.   The Strongs are our friends through Lindsey's soccer team. 

And this quilt is for Lincoln Bosley.   Lincoln is Autumn's new baby and Autumn is Jon's neice who just moved to South Carolina.   I love the cute monkey fabric!

2012 Calendars

During the months of October, November & December, one of my top priorities is:   CALENDARS!!!

I've made these for 9 or 10 years straight now and so once again, I did them!  They are soooo much work, but I love the finished product.     This year I made 6 big ones and 3 small ones!    

Enjoy!

Trip to Oregon (in one picture)

 

We had planned on leaving the morning of the 26th of December to drive to Oregon to visit Jon's mom.   It was really important to us to get there because it was her first Christmas without my father-in-law.  

 

We had quite a bit of snow on Christmas Eve and then a 2 day storm was expected on the 26th and 27th.   Jon had to work overnight the night of Christmas, so we had everything packed and we were planning on leaving as soon as he got home.

 

But, it was really, really snowy.  I was nervous about driving most of the way while he tried to sleep.  Then, our van wouldn't start (Jon had vacumned it out on Christmas night and left the lights on).   Then, his brother David called.  David was heading back to Utah from Oregon and said that chains were required on semis in Ontario.   Those were enough reasons for me to not go on the 26th. 

 

That gave Jon the chance to sleep, me the chance to take all the Christmas stuff down and the kids the chance to play with their new things.  We left the van all packed with the plan to leave on the 27th.

 

The weather wasn't great on the 27th either, but at least I had an awake husband.  We had to take most of Utah pretty slow, but we pushed through. (We had told the kids that the trip would take us longer than normal, but that we wanted to use as much daylight as we could).

 

Then, we got right past Burley, ID and it got really foggy!   We came upon stopped cars and thankfully we were able to stop and everyone behind us was able to stop.   Just a little farther down the highway, the other side was totally blocked off by a huge pileup, involving several semis & cars.   Everyone seemed to be okay - just unable to continue down that side of the highway - so we kept going.  (I later read that both sides of the highway ended up being closed, so we were so grateful we made it through).

 

After Jerome (where we stopped for lunch), the roads were much clearer.  We ran into some fog and slower roads again in Ontario, but we got to Union right as it was getting dark.  We were so grateful for our safe travels!!

 

 Anyway, we had a wonderful 2 days in Oregon.  The kids played the Wii, we played games, I sewed (2 quilts in 2 days!), Jon took the kids sledding and we ate at a yummy pizza place and then at the Cove Drive In - our favorite!

 

It is always fun to be with Diane & Rebecca (& Tom who was there)!

 

I was terrible about taking pictures and only got this one at the Cove Drive In!

 



Christmas Eve & Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas!   It was wonderful to be home and wonderful to have ALL my siblings in town to spend it together!

We had some beautiful snow on the 24th and we were so grateful to have everyone safely arrive and return home!

 

The kids played out in the snow and loved it!   Jon made pies and I made 2 loaves of cardamom bread, which seemed to take all day!

 

For dinner on Christmas Eve, the kids talked me into ordering a platter of Chick-Fil-A nuggets and it ended up tasting spectacular!   We had the Cowden family, Richard Olsen and my friend Julie over for dinner, a white elephant gift exchange and games.  Misty's mom, Diana, also came!  It was a fun crowd!

 

Unfortunately, Jon had to leave before dinner to go to work, so we missed him, but as usual, there were some great white elephant gifts (an old blow dryer, an ugly purse, i-tunes gift card & book, pink tool set, a framed picture of Fred Savage that was autographed (by Mike),  a plunger & a beautiful unicorn cross stitch). 

 

After putting the little kids to bed, we played Psychiatrist & Mafia and we were all laughing so hard! 

 

Peter, Mike, Becky & I ended up staying up until about 1 (at which time Jon got home from work).  We laughed and laughed and had a great time!

 

The kids (and Pete) didn't sleep extremely well, but they managed to not bother us and came in at 7:00.  We all met in our bedroom and went down to see if Santa came.  We had my parents watching us via FaceTime and everyone had a wonderful day!

 

We had breakfast together and then Richard, Misty, Sophia and Aunt Camille came over for Christmas dinner around noon and then gift opening from each other.  Everyone was so kind and thoughtful!

 

We slept, played games and visited until about 5, and then I started folding laundry and trying to get ready to leave town the next morning for Oregon (we ended up delaying it a day because of the weather).   

 

I was exhausted and happy that Christmas was successful, but more happy that it was over!  It is a magical, wonderful time of the year and I'm so grateful for it and for those that I love so much!

 

Hannah & I won the plunger

 



Emily got the purse

 



Mike got the bald man's comb